Ridley looking for bounce-back season with Patriots

Thursday

Jun 5, 2014 at 10:23 PMJun 5, 2014 at 10:27 PM

While running back Stevan Ridley says it's not about personal goals, he admits the 2013 season, one in which his rushing production declined by 490 yards, left him disappointed. Ridley says he strives to consistently be the 1,000-yard rusher he was in 2012.

Glen Farley The Enterprise @GFarley_ent

FOXBORO – His decline in production – nearly 500 yards – would rank as a disappointment by any self-respecting running back’s standards.

Stevan Ridley is no different.

“I want to strive to be a thousand-yard back every year and to not reach that was kind of really a little bit under what I wanted,” Ridley said following the Patriots’ organized team activity on the practice fields located behind Gillette Stadium on a rainy Thursday afternoon, “but it wasn’t about my personal goals.”

Nor was it about Ridley’s legs as much as it was about his hands.

While Ridley’s 4.3-yard average was below the franchise-record 4.5-yard average he’s attained on 555 carries to this point in his career, it was his inability to hold onto the ball (four fumbles for the second straight year; this time all resulting in turnovers) combined with LeGarrette Blount’s ability to take the ball and run with it that led to his decline in use and drop in production from 1,263 yards on 290 attempts in 2012 to 773 yards on 178 tries in 2013.

While Ridley still managed to edge out Blount for the team’s regular-season rushing lead by a single yard, over the last seven games of the Patriots’ season (including playoffs), Blount produced 580 yards and nine touchdowns on 100 carries to Ridley’s 266 yards and two TDs on 62 attempts.

Now, though, with Blount gone (to Pittsburgh as a free agent during the offseason), Ridley would appear to be the lead back among a group that includes fellow returning veterans Shane Vereen and Brandon Bolden, and fourth-round draft pick James White.

But if Ridley’s time under coach Bill Belichick since the Patriots made him a third-round draft choice out of Louisiana State University in 2011 has taught him nothing else it’s that things in New England are subject to change.

“In this system, always,” Ridley answered when asked if he feels there’s an open competition for playing time. “ I’m telling you, I don’t say that lightly.

“You can go out there and be a starter one game and the next game you’re two or three guys behind. So really, none of that matters. It’s week in and week out, and that’s what Coach stresses to us every week – that we just have to go out there and be as competitive as we can be. He’s going to play the matchups game and we just have to be unselfish, have to be out there and capitalize on the plays that we get.

“So it’s truly not about competition between the (running backs in the) room. I think we just have to push each other to make each other the best that we can be.”

How much longer that room remains intact is very much in question in a season in which Ridley, Vereen, Bolden and even James Develin (more the fullback type) are all entering contract years.

“Honestly, I try not to think too much about (his contract situation),” said Ridley. “I just really put my faith in God and that’s as real as I can be.

“I’ve got to go out there and play football and hit it hard and run the ball wide open. I’ve just got to be the same player that I’ve been up to this point in time and just try to go out there and be mistake free.”